MAQUOKETA, Iowa – As the yellow flag waved the car may have slowed down, but Tyler Soppe’s mind kicked into high gear.
“I really didn’t want to see those cautions, but that’s part of it,” Soppe said.
He reformed strategy and still raced to the 30-lap B&D Pit Stop IMCA SportMod topless special win Saturday evening at Maquoketa Speedway.
“Obviously the place to be was on the bottom (groove),” Soppe added. “We used where we needed to get to the front. The yellows hurt as the car was bogging down at the end. I knew guys like the 12D and 21 were close and we were able to pull away some.”
Soppe won his heat from the front row and redrew No. 8 for the feature. He was one of two cars that utilized the middle groove early and took the point from T.J. Fortmann on lap three.
A lap two caution sent four of the top six contenders to the tail, including Wisconsin’s Wes Digman, who raced back up to fifth.
Joe Docekal visited, started alongside Soppe and followed through traffic to second in the Dirt Hustler Chassis house car, which he owns. Logan Veloz, Cam Reimers and Digman rounded out the top five.
There does not seem to be a match for Jeff Larson, who dominated the latter portion of the QCJeeps.com IMCA Modified 20-lap feature again, even after starting 11th. He fought off Kory Meyer finally on lap 17 and moved away for the win. Meyer had led since lap two.
Jed Freiburger, Jordan Hicks and Jaden Fryer followed.
David Brandies returned and won a great GRE / REV Chassis IMCA Stock Car 15-lap battle over heat winner Joe Zrostlik, Dallon Murty, Terry Dulin and Chris Hinrichs.
Bobby Taggart celebrated Bob and Pam Taggart’s anniversary with the 15-lap Shawn’s Auto Service IMCA Hobby Stock win. Shane Oberbreckling, Daniel Wauters, Lukas Short and Brandon White were next.
Defending champion Brett Marshall held off current point leader Ashley Reuman to take the Obie’s Bar and Restaurant / B&C Liquor 4 Cylinder 12-lap main. Tim Sibley, Andy Wagener and Jamie Wood followed.
Jason Utter did it again in the INEX Legends. The Columbus Junction ace passed Franckie Hoch on lap eight and sprinted to the 20-lap win. Hoch held on over Adrianne Hartmann, Warren Ropp and Cole O’Brien.